During the second edition of All You Can Art (AYCA 2) our main theme is engagement. This means that we are also focusing a lot on engaging with the IBB alumni. Throughout the now more than eleven years of Instituto Buena Bista’s existence, more than fifty students traveled abroad and continued their studies in creative and artistic disciplines. While there are a number of them that participated participated in AYCA 2 during the summer of 2017, we spoke to two of them to get their view on the project.

Vincent Lauffer
Vincent (1991) is a class of 2012 graduate of the IBB, he is currently in the final phases of the fine arts program at the Willem de Kooning Academy (WdKA) in Rotterdam. During the weeks he worked at the AYCA2 exhibition he focused on producing a work for his graduation process.

Quinten Whyte
Quinten (1986) graduated from the preparatory program at the IBB in 2013 and is currently studying Fine Arts at WdKA. He has a passion for storytelling and making graphic novels, and is currently working on his final assignments in order to graduate this fall.

What are your plans after graduation?
Vincent: “I’m guessing just experimenting, having fun, and just trying to make stuff with no predetermined judgement of what I want to do. So it’s quite open and that’s quite fun.”

Quinten: “The fine art that I’ve been studying specifically is in a context of storytelling, and it can be in all forms. Primarily in drawings and also in paintings and murals, but mostly in drawings. In the future I would be more into comics and graphic novel works.

What does the IBB mean to you?
Vincent: “It’s like a safe haven, like a school, a sort of a place where there’s friends and also colleagues. It’s a safe place.”

Quinten: “What IBB means to me is [that it’s] the next significant steps [you must take] to go to any art academy you can think of. Because a lot of people think that art academies are similar to any other private or public school, but that’s not the case. For me IBB showed me a preview of what it’s like to be at an academy, and how to work on your discipline. Some might say a school is just a school, but it shows you how to cooperate with different students from lots of different backgrounds – educational or other sort. And at IBB they’re telling the students how to bring their creativity out of the box and stepping out of the comfort zone, and fighting against any particular fears or doubts. At IBB you don’t have to be afraid, you simply go forward and do it.”

How does it feel to be here during AYCA?
Vincent: “It’s quite comfortable, and quite nice. It’s a blast from the past. Especially the people.”

Quinten: “In All You Can Art it’s more of a summerschool project, but it also works therapeutic and gives you daily activities during the summer. […] All You Can Art is bringing these students – and other folks alike – together to bring them the joy and a sense of the Caribbean flavor to what it’s like to be in a Curaçaoan perspective.”

Are you participating with AYCA?
Vincent: “Yes, I just started so I’m going to keep participating. For my own personal good.”

Quinten is doing a storytelling project where he collects and tells stories from the perspective of the public. It’s part of his final assignments as a Willem de Kooning student.

What are you going to do during AYCA?
Vincent: “I guess I’m going to build some kind of… something, back there. It’s going to involve a fountain. Yeah, we’ll see!”

Quinten: “[The visitors] simply explain their stories… but what are their ideal stories for the audience, who are their heroes or their villains, and what are their ideas or sparks in their minds? So I ask a lot of questions, [write] it down and from that I convert it from words to image. Most of the visitors find the results amazing.”

That’s not all, come back soon to see the entire interview video!

Interview by Tittel Boomgaart